Balance Bards?

In the case of Dissonatatus, Bladedancer's Enmity, you can tweak it some, but after tweaking it, in order to keep bards in the dps game, might i suggest 3-4 less CD on Brusco's Overbearing Bellow and Brusco's Bombastic Bellow, and maybe remove the auto attack restriction after equipping or unequipping an item with an instrument mod so we can weave in Refuge Bellow as I had stated before, Overall, I do believe a nerf is needed in order to allow bards to want to use other weapons, but at the same time, without that weapon as it is, we will be lacking alot in the dps department.

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This post is to talk about how could you make bards not completely fall off with the tweaking the gain from our 4.3 sword, which should get turned down some, and it instead, I say we bring more focus into song dps. Im going to list my idea, and would love to hear some feed back from other bards how how they will think this will turn out.

So in my post says up there, I suggested lowering the cooldown on our higher bellows, but that alone will not make up for the dps loss that might come from losing our 4.3 weapon. What it will do is increase the dps a bard can do who dosnt have a 4.3 sword yet, in a sense, making the current gap of no sword, and sword, alittle smaller. In the case that the clicky from the sword is removed, I suggest something different, instead of lowering the cooldown of the bellows, instead make the 55 and 63 bellows have the same cooldown of 18 seconds. with is we can either change the cast type of our level 39, Brusco's Arrogant Bellow, from pulsing, to a 1 cast DD like our 55 and 63 bellows, OR as I stated above, "remove the auto attack restriction after equipping or unequipping an item with an instrument mod so we can weave in Refuge Bellow ". Our dots last 3 ticks, which is 18 seconds, so for example, you cast your Relic DoT, 18 second timer start. 3 seconds to cast the second song (15 seconds left), 3 seconds to cast the first Bellows, (12) 3 seconds to cast the second bellows, (9) and then 3 seconds to cast the relic dot again, leaves you with a good 6 seconds, or 1 more tick before it wears off. Adding in one more Bellows into the rotation will give us more damage output, but not so much that bards would be broken. It would still leave us 3 seconds for a clicky or something else as well as allow us to use more of our mana pool since we dont have many choices as it is.

Lower tier bards might burn through their mana quicker, but it would then make the Lackluster tome, Quiet Reflection, and Lich way more useful than it currently is, especially for end game bards. Maybe with this, you could increase the amount of skill per tome from 25 to 30, allowing bards to atleast reach a 250 skill for meditate. (Once again this is "In the case that the clicky from the sword is removed")

I would love some feedback, maybe from devs? or atleast other bards who might want to contribute.

Try a fight with no bard and then try the same fight with a bard just play songs, not meleeing. You'll notice a difference. Then do the same fight adding in the bard actually meleeing. Pretty big difference between no bard and a bard meleeing. All classes are not equal at all things.

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(I understand that you are "not just singling out bards, just trying to point out that comparing classes is never accurate" but I feel like having never played a bard, you dont understand what is is we do)

This is 100% true, but what it sounds like is you want bards to go back to afk bots and not contribute to a raid other than playing songs because the songs are strong enough. I think there should be some reward for playing/maining a underpowered class like a bard because they are a unique class that, while they offer songs, no one wants to want to not be able to kill anything while duoing because they do no damage themselves and that, is basically what this server's population is at. Its either Duo, or have 4 leechers in your group. What im suggesting here is less "Autoattack based dps" set up and a "Press buttons to get your dps numbers". I, myself, am already almost never not pressing buttons to get my dps numbers as it is. It instantly shows once im stuck boxing something, just how much my button pressing is related to my dps. I easily drop 300 dps on fights when I cant use my bellows as soon as they are off cooldown, or reapplying my sword click or dot which have short timers. Its hard as a bard leveling up too, and trying to stick to such a weak solo/duo class until you get good enough gear where you can atleast duo lower end exp zones without being forced to kite because you die way too fast trying to tank something, and the current 4.3 sword was something to look forward to as a bard because who dosnt like getting that one really strong item for your class? Verdict for healers, Jyre/robe for tanks, Taesh Boots for Monks, Traek dagger for Bsts, ect. Anyway, Im hoping my post isnt just overlooked and ignored.

Classes should be balanced off total contribution, not individual contribution. Given how insanely strong songs are, I'd wager that Bards here are stronger than they even need to be (from an individual DPS perspective).

I'd like to see their ability to dual wield be removed, and Secondary slot be limited to holding items with rubber chicken icon.

Rework "Blademaster's Rythym" tomes to use fiery instead (so they get the bonus most of the time in raids). Increase proc chance by 2x (with diminishing returns at each teir) and lower number of hits to 3-4. Give R2 the -35% stamina loss recource from the sword, remove the damage component and add a "rend" type proc on the recourse to make up for it (non-stacking with rbow because fuck that).